The Virginia football team’s game against Miami marked the seventh in the development of the play between sophomore quarterback Marc Verica and his wide receivers.
There have been many high points, including the 31-0 demolishing of Maryland Oct. 4 in which Verica was nearly flawless, connecting on 25 of his 34 passes for 226 yards and two touchdowns, both to junior wide receiver Kevin Ogletree, who grabbed five catches for 100 yards on the night.
There was the Georgia Tech game Oct. 25, when Verica completed all but 10 passes en route to throwing for a career-high 270 yards and two touchdowns, one to Ogletree and one to senior wide receiver Maurice Covington.
There have been low points, too. Verica has thrown nine interceptions to only six touchdowns this year and even though five of those came in his first two games against Connecticut and Duke, Verica has still thrown nearly as many interceptions (4) as touchdowns (6) during the past five games.
There was this past weekend’s game against the Hurricanes, in which Verica had another solid game, completing 27 of 41 passes for 240 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions, but a couple throws got away from him.
“A couple of my passes were literally a couple inches too far,” Verica said. “That’s frustrating to see. Had I been right on the mark on one of those, we may not be talking about that right now. We could be sitting at 6-3. It’s a game of inches really and it doesn’t always go your way.”
Aside from barely missing the target on a few throws, Verica also had to deal with a questionable call during the game. Late in the first half, with Virginia trying to add to its 17-10 lead, a pass to Ogletree appeared complete on the sideline but the referee called it incomplete. The play was reviewed but the call stood, much to the chagrin of the Cavaliers, who thought the pass was complete, even though Ogletree did lose the ball once he tumbled out of bounds.
“It hit the ground about 2 yards out-of-bounds,” coach Al Groh said. “Everyone who’s looked at it, OK, everybody — men, women, children, coaches, ACC representatives — everybody says it was a good catch. There’s only one person on the planet who didn’t see it that way. I’m not criticizing [the referee], I’m just saying these are the facts. We saw it one way, he saw it another way, he had the vote.”
Ogletree was able to put the questionable call behind him, even though the call surprised him as well.
“I was a little shocked, because I knew I caught it,” Ogletree said. “I knew there was no reason to think I bobbled it or a foot wasn’t in bounds. I had to forget about it quickly. You can never question the ruling of the officials and you just hope they use their better judgement next time.”
Ogletree is a player who has reemerged after missing all of last season with a knee injury. This year, he has 44 catches for 545 yards and four touchdowns, already closing in on his 2006 numbers — 52 catches, 582 yards, four touchdowns. Despite his success, Ogletree had some doubts that he could come back as strong as he was in 2006.
“[But] I never had a question of where I had to get back to or what I had to do,” he added. “I had a lot of faith in my work ethic to get back where I was, or get even better.”
Freshman wide receiver Jared Green is another player who has stepped up to give Verica someone dependable to catch his passes. Green caught his first collegiate touchdown against Miami, a 2-yard reception during the second quarter that put the Cavaliers up a touchdown. Green’s father, former Washington Redskins cornerback Darrell Green, was happy for his son’s first touchdown catch.
“He was very proud like any father would be for the first touchdown,” Green said. “He was really excited. But at the same time he was really excited about the other catches I had. He said that whatever I had been doing with the coaches had molded me into a real receiver and not just a kid out there running.”
Green was also pleased, but kept his team’s goals in perspective.
“The touchdown meant something to me, but we’re trying to win games and I didn’t really dwell on [the touchdown],” Green said. “Really, the third quarter is what mattered, trying to press on and seal the deal. It didn’t work out for us, but that was my real passion.”
Sealing the deal is something the Cavaliers will have to do as they enter their final three-game stretch of what will likely be close games against formidable opponents — Wake Forest, Clemson and Virginia Tech.
Though there have been successes and growth this year with Verica and his wide receiving corps, the players, like the team, are looking at the big picture and have not completed their goals yet.
“Coming off the field Saturday was a real tough loss,” Green said. “I’m real antsy to get out on the field this Saturday [at Wake Forest]. We have a lot of stuff we want to get accomplished this year. We’re keeping our hopes alive. I feel like we’re going to do really good things.”
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